On June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in United States. v. Skrmetti, a case that will have far-reaching effects on the lives of transgender Americans—and the principles of equal protection for all Americans.

In Skrmetti, the parents of three transgender children sued the state of Tennessee for a law that nullified their children’s rights to continue gender-affirming care. The law, which took effect on July 1, 2023, forbids treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy—but only for transgender children. This, as a result, created two classes of people and two kinds of law: cis and trans.

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What Tennessee had done, said ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, who became the first openly transgender person to argue before the Court, is “impose a blunderbuss ban overriding the very careful judgment of parents who love and care for their children and the doctors who have recommended the treatment.” In deciding against parental rights and against the advice of medical experts, the Court has put the health and well-being of the plaintiffs at risk. In the same text, the decision also has diminished the right to equal protection—the right to be who we are, and the right to be let alone. What is most striking about this decision, however, is just how much history repeats itself.

Skrmetti carries echoes of the Supreme Court’s 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which an Atlanta bartender, Michael Hardwick, sued for his right to sexual privacy. On August 3, 1982, an Atlanta police officer arrested Hardwick and a partner for oral sex conducted inside Hardwick’s apartment,........

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